The Collaborative International Dictionary

Varying in from, character, or the like; variable;
different; diverse.

Changeable; changing; fickle. [Obs.]

He is variant, he abit [abides] nowhere. --Chaucer.

Variant

Variant \Va"ri*ant\, n. [Cf. F. variante.]
Something which differs in form from another thing, though
really the same; as, a variant from a type in natural
history; a variant of a story or a word.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary

variant

:something substantially the same, but in different form," 1848, from variant (adj.).

variant

late 14c., "tending to change," from Old French variant and directly from Latin variantem (nominative varians), present participle of variare "to change" (see vary).

Wiktionary

variant

a. 1 Showing variety, diverse. 2 Showing deviation or disagreement. 3 (context obsolete English) variable. n. 1 Something that is slightly different from a type or norm. 2 (context genetics English) A different sequence of a gene (locus). 3 (context computing English) A variable that can hold any of various unrelated data types.

something a little different from others of the same type; "an experimental version of the night fighter"; "an emery wheel is a modern variant of the grindstone"; "the boy is a younger edition of his father" [syn: version, variation, edition]

Wikipedia

Variant (novel)

Variant is a young adult suspense novel by Robison Wells. It was published on October 4, 2011 by HarperTeen. Wells has stated that the initial draft of Variant took him only eleven days to write. The book was named one of Publishers Weekly's "Best Books of 2011".

Variant (magazine)

Variant is a free cultural magazine based in Glasgow, Scotland, and founded in 1984. Available in both print and internet editions, it is distributed mainly though arts and cultural institutions through Britain and Ireland. Although nominally an arts and cultural bulletin, the magazine also deals with broader social and political issues, often from a left-leaning perspective. 15,000 copies are distributed per issue.

Volume 1 ran from issue 1 (1984) to 16 (1994), almost twice a year; volume 2 is running from issue 1 (1996) to current issue 33 (Winter 2008), two or three times a year. Contributors have included people such as cultural theorist Angela McRobbie, artist Mark Pawson, etc.

Usage examples of "variant".

The teams are all looking at variants on a simple, cheap technique that involves putting antigen genes into harmless bacteria that will double as delivery vehicles and adjuvants, then freeze-drying them into spores that can survive tropical heat without refrigeration.

Because brute-force computers broke codes by examining cleartext for identifiable word patterns, Harne proposed an encryption algorithm that, in addition to encrypting, shifted decrypted cleartext over a time variant.

This drama will have to be clarified and articulated much further as our study proceeds, but we should insist right from the outset that this is not simply another variant of dialectical Enlightenment.

From the undoubted fact that gene mutations like the Tay-Sachs mutation or chromosomal abnormalities like the extra chromosome causing Down syndrome are the sources of pathological variation, human geneticists have assumed that heart disease, diabetes, breast cancer, and bipolar syndrome must also be genetic variants.

The latter is a specific variant of codependent that derives gratification from a relationship with a narcissist or an Antisocial Personality Disordered partner.

Vlad called a mix and match program, and recently they had come up with a variant of the cyanophyte that was sometimes called bluegreen algae.

Navachristianity of Chusuk, the Buddislamic Variants of the types dominant at Lankiveil and Sikun, the Blend Books of the Mahayana Lankavatara, the Zen Hekiganshu of III Delta Pavonis, the Tawrah and Talmudic Zabur surviving on Salusa Secundus, the pervasive Obeah Ritual, the Muadh Quran with its pure Ilm and Fiqh preserved among the pundi rice farmers of Caladan, the Hindu outcroppings found all through the universe in little pockets of insulated pyons, and finally, the Butlerian Jihad.

Her Hebrew name was Khana, but Henyeh--a Slavic variant imported into Yiddish--was what she was always called.

This last opinion was strengthened by the shabby gentleman with the red nose and oilcloth hat, and whom I strongly suspected of being a lineal descendant from the variant Bardolph.

The servant helped him put on these articles, and by then someone was outside, handing over a cloak of magnificent lyng fur, pale cream with variant shades of gray stripes.

Maia recalled the var-trash romance novel she had read back in prison, about a world spun topsy-turvy, in which stodgy clans collapsed along with the stable conditions that had made them thrive, opening fresh niches to be filled by upstart variants.

Sasha, or the variant nickname Sassy, since she was old enough to express an opinion.

He was versed in all forms of that game: the western-Earth two- and three-dimensional variants, the Chinese Choohong-ki, Japanese Shogi, Indian Chaturanga and the hypermodern developments.

Perhaps even that will be forbidden when we tell Summet about the variant effect.

In this variant his father had written to him just before Summet had sent him to the Antarctic.